Commodities: WTI buoyed by sabre-rattling from Iran, copper weak on trade worries

Commodities were generally higher, helped by 'bullish' data out of the energy sector overnight.

On Tuesday evening, the American Petroleum Institute had reported a 4.51m barrel fall in the level of US inventories during the latest reference week, although Saudi energy minister Khalid Al-Falih did reiterate a pledge from OPEC and Russia to boost their combined output by 1.0m barrels a day.

Favouring higher oil prices, there was a fair bit of 'sabre-rattling' to be heard in the background from Tehran.

Despite that message from the Saudis, August West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were adding 0.26% as of 1942 BST and changing hands at $74.33 a barrel on NYMEX.

But there were some exceptions to the positive tone in commodity markets on Thursday - base metals.

"LME prices remained under pressure today as the US/China trade debacle saps confidence from investors and the technical picture deteriorates. Many potential buyers are sitting on their hands in the current nervous environment, with copper bearing the brunt of the price fall," said analysts at Sucden Financial.

Indeed, investors were expectant ahead of the Friday deadline for the US to impose tariffs on $34bn-worth of Chinese made goods and the possible reaction from Beijing.

In fact, on Wednesday a spokesman for China's foreign ministry said the country had already made preparations in case Washington finally followed through with its threat.

Against that backdrop, three-month copper futures on the LME retreated from $6,518 per metric tonne at the market open to finish at $6,386 per tonne.

Precious metals on the other hand were all on the up, with August gold on COMEX adding 0.37% to $1,258.10/oz..

In parallel, the US dollar spot index was off by 0.12% to 94.4810.